Silence
by AlyCat3
Summary: Five time's the Avengers wanted Tony to be silent, and the one time they hope he doesn't. Loads of Tony whump
1. Hanging

I enjoyed the last five thing so much, that I decided to do another one. Hope you guys enjoy this one as well.

Disclaimer: I own nothing Marvel related except to occasionally borrow there Marvelous work.

* * *

The training room was all set up at its most difficult level for practice in anticipation for his solo mission tomorrow. He would be stuck in Chicago for Thor knows how long, and so had a wind current up as high as it could go, while he himself was as high in the rafters as possible. It wasn't to difficult of a shot, just wait for the right pressure and-"Hey Barton!"

His arm let go of the string with a nice loud thwack and the arrow went sailing much to far to the right. In a blind panic he drew another arrow and managed to make the two collide in mid air so that they both landed safely at the feet of one Stark.

"The fuck Stark" I demanded as I hit the ground mere inches behind the man. He whirled around wide eyed and gasped "God Clint if you didn't want me in here all you had to do was say so. Showing off was never necessary."

"I have stated I didn't want you in here" I said slowly and calmly, trying to resist the impulse to strangle him "seventeen times today. Why are you back in here?"

A spark of glee crept into his eyes as he launched into a full blown explanation of some targeting factor he was going to install into his suite. Going into way more detail then I ever would have cared for, I cut him off midway "Why are you not telling Banner all this stuff? Isn't he your Science Bro?

Tony laughed and waved his hand in an airy sort of way "Fury called him up to the helicarrier for the day. I thought you'd be interested, mister never misses" and he quirked a brow at the arrows still laying at his feet.

"Your lucky I don't miss" I hissed "other wise one of those arrows would be imbedded in your throat."

He rather aduably gulped before moving on "So, back to my original point of would you like to come up to the roof and try it out?"

"No Tony" I sighed heavily "I"m leaving in less then twenty-four hours for the windy city, I need to get some more work done."

He scowled and tisked in an almost childish manner. "We don't call you the guy who _almost _never misses. What do you need practice for?"

"I haven't left New York in months" I explained "and its probably been one of the locations I've been in the longest, so I'm getting to used to the surroundings. I need to start building up for a new change of scenery."

Clearly not buying this, he opened his mouth, possibly for a new line of persuasion before I snapped "Go play with JARVIS or something and leave me alone Stark. I'm busy."

He huffed and gave me a reproachful look before turning and finally leaving. It was as he walked out the door and glanced back at me did I realize what I'd just done. O, he was going to be back, now just for the sheer fun of annoying the shit out of me. Well, two could play at that game.

AAA

"How long can he hang upside down like that before we have to pull him down?" I asked, only mildly curious.

"Considering his big head, approximately four hours. It differs per person of course." Natasha answered without looking up.

"So your saying we've got three hours and fifty nine minutes of Tony free time?" I exclaimed, a wicked grin spreading across his face.

"I like the way your mind works Barton" Natasha grinned as well, and the two quickly left as the profanity's followed them out of the training room.

* * *

Well that was number one. Four more times of attempting to get Stark to shut up, hope you enjoyed and let me know who's you want to see next. Don't worry I haven't forgotten about my other Avenger's story ChitChat, these all just linked together so well I decided to make them a five piece, or rather six counting the conclusion. Hope you enjoyed


	2. Free Falling

Disclaimer: I own nothing Marvel related except to occasionally borrow there Marvelous work.

* * *

The door to the roof banged open so loud behind me, I thought for a moment that we were under attack. Whirling around with my weapon in hand merely had me realizing that it was Stark, just the man I was fixing to summon using the magical voice that surrounds this place.

"Stark" I greeted at once "I have been meaning to have a word with you-" but was almost instantly cut off by his talking.

"-Believe those guys! Leave me dangling from a roof for two god damn hours! I'd probably still be up there if Steve hadn't come in. Honestly, those ingrates, I should kick them back on the streets. Or send them back to Fury, that would be plenty punishment."

"I am sorry for you misfortune" I said sincerely, though I was not very clear on what he meant "but I do have need of a word with you."

"and then Steve wasn't even going to let me down! He just waltz in there, sees me dangling from the roof by my feet, and turns to leave! I mean sure he comes back a minute later with a ladder and some scissors, but he could have said something instead of making me think he was going to leave me up there."

I couldn't help but frown, wondering if I was not speaking loud enough for him to hear me, so spoke louder "Iron Man, I have need of your assistance-"

"I am so cutting them all off from the training room for a week. I'll install a password into that door, an unbreakable pass-code. It'll have to be something that they'd never think would of."

I glanced about me again as his rambling continued, growing more concerned by the second, yet it seemed I was unable to grab his attention in the normal way. Perhaps an old Asgardian move would do the trick.

Walking with purpose forward, I grabbed the front of his finely pressed suite, turned about, and proceeded to drop him off the side of the building. Much like my brother had once done in fact.

As I'd known it would, his Iron suite caught him before he hit the ground, and he flew back up to my level. Though there was the mask in place, I knew that he was quite unhappy with me, as he was pointing his cannon directly at my face and growled "The Fuck Thor?"

"My friend, I was trying to alert you to the danger surrounding us!" I told him directly, now that I had his attention.

"By throwing me off the building!" He snarled, but never the less whirled around and instead pointed his weapon in all other directions before finally lowering his arm and turning back to me, still not coming to rest back on the building though. "What danger?" he snapped.

I gestured about me, feeling the problem was rather obvious. "These creatures about us have nary left me be since I made my presence up here. They have also left little white spots upon your place of dwelling which smell quite repugnant. I wish to have your permission to dispose of these beasts though, encase they have some value of which I am not privy."

His visor flipped up so that I could see the red in his face that now matched the color of the suite he wore. "You threw me off the side of my building to tell me that there are pigeons up here!"

"Well," I said slowly, starting to feel as if I had made a mistake somewhere in this interaction "you would not cease in your speech, and I felt this problem should be dealt with swiftly."

"Pepper" he called as he made his way back to the door from whence he had come out of, now grumbling things under his breath that did not make much sense to me. "Iron Man wait, what am I to do with these foul creatures!"

"Fry there feathers" were his departing words before the door slammed as loudly as it had banged open, and I grinned as I turned back to the little pests. These creatures would now learn not to encroach upon Thor's domain.

* * *

So that was Thor's solution to getting Tony to shut up. As I've stated before I'm not very good at getting Thor's personalty (and definitely not his speech) right, so I apologize if he seems a little out of character. Let me know if you care who comes up next, until next time folks.


	3. Smothering

Disclaimer: I own nothing Marvel related except to occasionally borrow there Marvelous work.

* * *

Why did my life seem to be in a constant state of trying to track down his whereabouts? Well, even before I'd been named head of the company that had been one of my key jobs, but it wasn't so hard back then. Ninety percent of the time he'd be in his lab, or in his room. Now, with all the other Avenger's here, I would be forced to comb the whole building sometimes before I found him. Mostly because he often took to telling JARVIS not to let me know where he was.

It was only as I was searching the third kitchen did I hear an odd noise up above. Was that, thumping? Well that never meant anything good. The last time that noise had been heard, Thor had somehow managed to stamp right threw the floor and we had to explain the whole thing to a very awestruck contractor. Not something I wanted to go threw again.

Hastily making my way one floor up, I walked into the main living room to one of the strangest sights I'm sure I'll ever see, and I did live with Tony Stark. Natasha had said genius pinned to the floor, one knee in his back and the other straddling his waist. With one hand she was pressing his face firmly into the soft, though rather thick carpeted ground, and the other grouping around behind her, for what I wasn't sure I wanted to know. The thumping noise I'd heard below was Tony writhing in all directions, pounding on the floor as hard as he could, trying to free himself I assumed. Even with the added affect of the carpet I could almost make out what he was saying, though I wished I couldn't, as profanity's like shouldn't even exist.

I stood there for a long time just taking in the scene before I opened my mouth, thought better of it, and closed it again. Then I reconsidered, opened it again, decided I didn't want to know, and closed it yet again. Finally coming to with speech, I cleared my throat once, though neither stopped there actions. "Natasha?" I tried a little louder, afraid to startle her when she had anyone in such a position.

She made no other indication that she'd heard me except to tip her head very slightly in my direction, while the hand behind her finally snagged on a pillow that had half been hanging off the couch. I sighed, this was not going to end well, and my intervening was only going to make it worse. "He has a board meeting at five, make sure he's there." I told her coolly.

She only nodded slightly as understanding, and I went off to check on are medicine supplies.

* * *

Sorry this one was so short, but I just had to put this mental image I had to print. Hope you still enjoyed


	4. Drugged

Disclaimer: I own nothing Marvel related except to occasionally borrow there Marvelous work.

* * *

"It's not that I'm not a 'people person', it's that I'm not a 'stupid people person'" He stated flatly.

"Do you ever stop insulting people?" I sighed, trying to follow his progress, "and he's not stupid." I tried one last time to defend our friend, weather Tony admitted it our not "he's just ignorant. You would be to if you woke up seventy years later."

He continued to huff and rummage around under his work desk for what ever he was looking for while I plopped down his bag of pills on his work desk. "He did apologize" I reminded him, again.

"He should never have done it in the first place" he snapped, finally making an appearance by crawling out from under a car with a screw driver in hand.

"I know that, and he knows that" at his stern glare I finished with "now."

He started to grumble something else as he began to straiten up, only to almost loose his balance and land flat on his ass, possibly smacking his head on the car on the way down. I didn't give him the chance as I caught his arm, and half dragged, half carried him over to the desk. Pushing him ruffly into it I handed him his prescription while taking away the screw driver and stating "You need to take these and get some rest. You took a pretty good smack to the head, and I know you have to have a headache."

"Because I can't get people to stop talking to me" he growled, pushing the bag away and snatching the tool back. "First Cap apologizing endlessly, now you trying to get me high. Honestly, if it means that much to you two I forgive him alright. He didn't know, his ignorance is forgiven, happy now."

I tried to gauge how much he meant that, but sense he was already making his way over to a car with his back to me I couldn't be sure. Massaging my temples at my own growing head ache I reminded him "You still need to take your meds, they'll help you get some sleep."

"I don't want to go to sleep" he snapped "my cars need a tune up. I haven't worked on these baby's in forever, do you know how much time it took to repair my suite because of that man. I thought the alien's did a number on it."

"He said he was-" I tried again

"Sorry, yeah, I got that part." Came his muffled reply, as he was now bent over a glossy silver hood.

I plopped down into his vacated chair and just sat, eyeing the pills as if they would magically force themselves down his throat. He really did need to take it, or his headaches would just grow worse and he would end up doing something really stupid. Sadly, there was no force short of Pepper to get him to even look at the little white pills, since he was in one of those 'the worlds out to get me' sort of moods.

We sat there for a long time in silence, proving just how much his head really did hurt if he hadn't asked JARVIS to turn his music on, when my stomach started to rumble along. I realized then it had been quite a while since I'd eaten, which means it had been twice as long for Tony. I started musing what was going to be for lunch when my eyes landed on the little bottle, then flickered away again at once.

No, no way. That was the most horrible, dastardly thing... a loud clatter had me drawing my eyes to his now shacking knee's as he bent over to scoop up his fallen tool. It was for his own good.

Less then twenty minutes later, he'd downed the whole mug of coffee I'd handed him and was yawning up a storm. I sat back patently and waited for the inevitable admission of defeat. When it came, it wasn't nearly the hassle I'd been predicting. He laid down his stuff, went over to the elevator, and actually grabbed the bag on his own. I followed him out of the lab and up to the kitchen where he made himself a sandwich, and popped two pills into his hand.

"No, Tony don't-" I tried at once to snatch it away.

"What" he snapped "I'm taking the damn pills. God, can't make anyone around here happy."

"Your only supposed to take two every eight hours" I told him patently, while mentally running the math threw my head.

He stared at me for a moment before showing me his palm and stating "that's what I'm doing."

"Oh, of course" I tried to cover lamely "I just thought I saw more."

He pored himself a glass of water and downed the lot of it before trotting up to his room. If my math was right, and I knew it was, he had not taken a lethal dose. As long as he stayed away from the alcohol he would merely be knocked out for about twenty-four hours. Well, at least we'd finally get some peace around here.

Sadly, I knew that he would figure it out though. He would eventually count out how many he had left, realize there was a pill missing, and put two and two together. I was pretty sure Steve wasn't going to be the person he was mad at when he made four.

* * *

Yes, Bruce has an evil side when he puts his mind to it. Hope you guys enjoyed, and I want to thank you all so so much for making this my most alerted story by far. Sorry for a delay in posting, I will do my best to get the next chapter up on Sunday.


	5. Riot

Disclaimer: I own nothing Marvel related except to occasionally borrow there Marvelous work.

* * *

When Fury called to tell us that there was a riot over on thirty-fourth street, none of us were to worried. We'd saved the planet from several alien invasions after all, how did a couple of normal people having a hissy fit over some political thing need Avenger attention? Then Steve went all high and mighty on us saying that if Fury called it in it had to be something important, so we all suited up and headed over. It was supposed to be no biggie and I could still make it back in time to catch Pepper as she walked out of yet another meeting.

Then we got there.

It was Senator Stern of all people, giving a speech on something I knew I wouldn't care about. The 'riot' as Fury had called it was a bunch of people storming around with signs and bricks in there hands, trying to throw them at the man. The cops seemed to be handling it pretty well though, and I couldn't say I would care even if they weren't. Hell I was half tempted to just turn around and leave them at it until Steve went up to the stage.

Once most of the protesters realized the big guns had been called in, most of them scarpered. The ones that did stay, only hung around long enough to trow there junk at the foot of the stage, clearly not aiming for the symbol of America, just displaying there anger I guess. It seemed like that was going to be the end of that. The senator finished his speech, the camera crews started there load up process, and the rest of the Avengers hopped back into the jet to fly back home. I wasn't entirely sure if they'd ever exited.

Then the senator turned to me with an adjoining sneer and told me "Thanks for the support Stark."

"What?" I hissed, landing on the stage with a loud bang, and straitening up to my full height, still in the suite, to face him.

"You guys came at the perfect time to allow me to finish. With the Avengers publicly on my side, I'm a shoe in for reelection." He smiled at me and gave a fake sort of salute before turning back to his car.

"You called for that riot didn't you" I demanded, remembering the sort of half ass throw's "you did that just so we would have to show up? How on Earth could you have guessed that?"

Stern's just laughed, and shook his head in disbelief, "You honestly expect me to tell you anything Stark? Your still a threat to us all, no matter what kind of face you put on for the public. No, I'd much rather stay in office and slowly work you out of the public view." He grinned one last time before sliding into the vehicle.

Later, I might look back on this and rethink my actions. Right now, I shot a repulsor beam at the rear end of that car and knocked the back tires completely off. Stern's leaped out of the car with a flabbergasted look on his face as he snapped "Stark! How dare you aim that weapon at me."

"Ah no I didn't, and if I had you'd be over there" and I gestured over to the water fountain a good sixty feet away where that tire was currently sinking.

"Stark!" Steve was suddenly there, grabbing a hold of me and trying to manually lower my arm, and failing at it since it was still pointed at the car.

"Rogers" I answered casually, as if he'd just walked in on me making my morning cup of coffee.

"Come on Tony, step off. Wrong fight to pick" Clint was on my other side now, and I still didn't care. I had to make sure my point got through.

"We are not at your beck and call Senator, and the next time you publicly endanger so much as a stray cat, I'll blow up a hell of a lot more then your car." I told him flatly, then waited patently as he started screaming threats at the top of his lungs, before turning about and flying off.

That night, the TV would talk of nothing else except Iron Man and Senator Stern having such a public debacle, and Fury had been hounding my ass exactly five seconds after it ended to have my ass chewed out. Steve seemed to have made it his personal mission in life to make sure I receive it, as he had tried all manner to get into my lab. Though of course I'd locked him and every other living organism out of it until the whole stupid thing blew over.

My favorite instance was when he tried to make it sound like this was actually my fault. Like the media getting footage of us, or rather me, having a throw down with such a high end person was bad press for us. I didn't really see it that way, more like it was bad press for the good soon to be ex senator, and we just happened to be in the shot.

* * *

Okay, so clearly I didn't update when I said I would, but this one was just giving me hell on earth for some reason. I apologize greatly for this, and the last (and my favorite) chapter will be up very soon. Thank you endlessly for all of your support


	6. Phobia's

Disclaimer: I own nothing Marvel related except to occasionally borrow there Marvelous work.

* * *

"Sire, oxygen levels are currently at seventy percent. Continued current breathing rate will deplete all usable storage's at approximately one hour and forty-nine minutes." I relaxed, marginally. The team would get down here in an hour, hell ten minutes tops if they sent Thor down here. Only problem with that was the last time I'd seen Thor he'd made a little crater in a field a few miles back and had yet to resurface. No one was to worried, they'd watched the big guy take bigger hits and live. Most likely his com link had been broken and he was just dazed.

Speaking of com links, shouldn't mine be going off? Maybe if that stupid buzzing in my ears would piss off I'd be able to think. I tried to move my arm again, only to remember why I hadn't jetted out the moment I'd touched water. Captain Dumbass had freaking reechoed a rocket off of his shield to collide with one of those monstrosity's, only for it to have latched onto my arm on the way down and drag us both beneath the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean.

A very small, easily ignorable voice that sounded eerily like Pepper, whispered that it wasn't his fault. None of us had known the full extension of the tongue like projectiles that would snake out of there mouth and latch onto what ever moved.

I tried moving my other arm instead, and frowned when it didn't move either. Okay, had I missed something? I was pretty sure only one of those stupid things had gone down with me, what was pinning my other arm down?

I started to blink sluggishly, my memory having only taken me so far, and tried to turn my head to that direction. This small movement made the buzzing noise in my ear intensify, and a small scratching, _shuffling, _noise start. "JARVIS, visual mode without obstruction of equipment data" it all said the same thing any way. My suite was malfunctioning around me as I breathed, this one wasn't exactly designed for long term use underwater.

There was a slight beeping noise and all of the mechanics surrounding my visor disappeared, to be replaced by a huge, something. It was pretty hard to put a name to what I was looking at. What ever it was, seemed to be alive at least. It had eyes any way's and was staring right at me as it continued trying to gnaw through my armor. I couldn't stop the sharp inhalation and tried to jerk my arm away out of reflex, only for the creature to latch on harder. In fact, the thing seemed to be growing. Its body seemed to be inflating and, inch by inch, started creeping right for the arc reactor in my chest.

I started screaming then. Horrible visions of pain and the horrible admission that I couldn't make it stop. There were voices then, loud voices that all spoke at once, all screaming to keep me still as they continued to saw threw my chest, into my heart. I screamed, pleaded, and begged it all to stop until finally the darkness took over and I succumbed to the pain of blackness.

AAA

"-oxygen levels now residing at seventeen percent. Current rate of consumption will deplete all sources in approximately seventeen minutes and twenty-three seconds. Suggested course of action would be to remove Mr. Stark from his current location."

"Yes _thank you_, JARVIS, for that wonderful input." A rather snide female voice snapped. I frowned, no one should snap at JARVIS, he was just doing his job and giving off the information in the most basic and swift way possible. That's what I programmed him to do.

Another voice, this time male, stated "Can't that thing go any faster?"

"It's going as fast as it can go Steve" Yet another male voice broke in, this one sounded cold and crisp.

"Can Iron Man's suite not go on autopilot as it has done before? Why must we wait on these machines to drag our friend out?" Said a man with a rather odd accent.

"Because Thor, were trying to keep JARVIS as inactive as possible since he uses a lot of the suites energy. Besides, any number of things could go wrong, not to mention the auto pilot mode can only be activated by a code that I don't know." That voice, I knew that voice. I knew all of them in fact, there faces would have swam into view if my mind wasn't so flogged.

"Don't snap at him" one of the others defended "I was about to suggest the same thing." Steve. That was Steve's commanding and rather loud voice, wasn't it?

"Alright cool it all of you. Were in a stressful situation and you all bickering isn't helping" the female spoke again. Natasha? Well she was the only girl present. Unless it was Hill, but I couldn't think of a reason for her to sound so worried. Then again, couldn't really think up one for Tasha either.

Back to the topic at hand, why was I hearing there voices in my head? Had I died and gone to Hell? Was my eternal punishment to listen to them bicker for the rest of forever? Oh, someone kill me again please. I groaned as the pounding in my head seemed to increase the more I tried to think about it.

Sudden silence, had the voices grown tired for now and would continue later when my head hurt worse?

"Tony? Tony are you okay, you awake now?"

That was Bruce again, I was almost sure of it. Why was he talking to me though, if I was dead, then shouldn't they be grieving over vodka? "Whrmat" I groaned, trying to at least try and make speech, though all that seemed to come out was more grumbling.

"I didn't catch that, did he just ask for someone named Mat?" Clint demanded "Or was he trying to say Nat?"

"I think he asked for his hat." Thor said helpfully.

"Does he even own a hat?" Steve wondered.

"Still not helping" Bruce hissed at them all, which seemed to bring back the blessed silence, at least for a moment. "Tony, if you can hear me, I need you to talk to me. Are you hurt anywhere, can you hear me alright?"

I couldn't help but groan again, everything was dark and Bruce was talking to me like a small child, plus I now realized that there was not just pain in my head. At Bruce's questioning I know realized that I was quite sore all over, especially both of my arms, and my chest was killing me. Though I still didn't know where I was, and since my mind seemed stuck on this fact I again tried to voice the question "Where am I at?"

There was a hesitation before Bruce slowly spoke "I"m not sure you need to know that right now To-"

"To hell I don't" I hissed, gaining some form of confidence back. Though making my head give an extra throb. "I can't see shit Banner, nor can I move my arms or legs. My head feel's like it was split in two and I can hear your voices, in my head. Where the fuck am I."

There was a very hushed conversation, one that I couldn't make any words out of, before Bruce's voice was back and explaining quite calmly, as if he were showing Steve and Thor how the dish washer worked again. "Okay Tony, just calm down. I'll explain everything if you do something for me."

"What" I snapped, growing more impatient and exhausted the longer this was dragged on.

"I need you to start taking some deep breath's for me. Slowly, relax yourself. Calm down, and I will explain." Bruce continued on in a soothing voice, as if I hadn't spoken.

I frowned, thinking he was trying some kind of hypnosis crap, did Bruce even know how to do that? Well, if it was the only way out of this mess, I'd try anything. So I started breathing as he'd told me, as loud as I could to make sure he heard it, and was comforted at once when he started talking "We were called in to the coast because some kind of mechanical bug things were attacking everything. You remember those? They had these twelve foot long tongues that dragged stuff into there mouths and then it didn't come back out looking quite, the same."

I was disappointed he couldn't see my eye roll, of course I remembered those things. They were the reason I was down here- my breath took a sudden hitch as I started to twist my head this way and that, and there were sudden concerned voices in my ear again asking me if I was okay, what was wrong. I suddenly remembered everything, I knew where I was.

"-ony, Tony! Listen to me! Hey, you've got to hear me out. Were coming down there, you hear me. A sub is on its way to get you out of there, but your oxygen is getting really low in there and you panting like that is driving us all crazy!"

I tried to focus on the words and not the sheer panic in Bruce's voice, that wasn't helping stress level. I tried again to take more deep calming breath's, but they weren't coming as easy this time around. "Br-Bruce. You got to get me out of here!" I told him, not even trying to hid the panic that had crept back into my mind as the sudden pressure of water, and what ever else was on top of me, fully sunk in. I wasn't going to make it! I was going to die down here, under the ocean. They'd probably never even find my body and- "Oxygen intake now decreased to eight percent. Current rate of consumption will consume all air supply's in approximately eight minutes and thirty-three seconds. Preferred course of action-"

"Stark listen to me!" Clint's voice was there all of a sudden, and there was something there that I'd never heard before. It was so foreign to the assassin that I couldn't even think what to call it. "ETA is fifteen minutes out but you have to calm the shit down. Stop breathing so hard, your taking up more oxygen then needed. Just, I don't know just start talking. Your good at that, just start talking in a nice calm voice about something. Anything that comes to mind."

Fear, that was it. Clint Barton actually sounded scared, about me?! Well, well, well, if he was that concerned all he had to do was say so. I wonder if the others are to. They must be since they were all still hovering around so close that JARVIS was picking up every word spoken. I'd never really thought about- "Your still not talking. Come on, Tony do the one thing you do best."

Wow, now even Steve was trying to comfort me, and get me to start talking all at once. "Okay" I murmured, picking the first thing that popped into my head "It's ironic how dry my throat is when I'm surrounded by water."

There was a surprised burst of laughter from Natasha, and I couldn't help but smirk. How long had I been trying to get that women to laugh? Now I got the chance to do it on my death bed. Bruce spoke again in a gentle voice "We'll get you as much water as you like as soon as your back on the Helicarrier. So about that new engine for the Camaro. Weren't you going to give it a tune up when we got back? Why don't you give me some details about that. I'm no great shakes at mechanics but I'm sure I can keep up."

Finally, something to really distract me! I was just opening my mouth to give them a description of there lives when I heard something. My visor was still dark as pitch. I knew from Bruce's earlier statement that it was a bad idea to ask JARVIS to reactivate them, but if I didn't how was I supposed to see what was definitely rumbling right next to my ear.

"Tony? Come on man why is it the one time I need you to start talking I can't get a word out of you?" Clint grumbled.

"Hey guys" I whispered, hoping they could still hear me though my voice was as low as it could go now, "how far away was that sub again?"

There was a pause for a moment and I feared they hadn't heard me before Steve said just as quietly "ETA is still seven minutes out, why? Are you getting light headed? Just remember slow-"

"No" I hissed wincing as my head gave another hard throb "I hear something. It doesn't sound like a sub either, don't suppose you guys have a visual on me or anything?"

"No we don't" Bruce spoke up softly, "but don't worry. I'm sure SHIELD will shoo away any kind of sea urchin that took a liking to your suite. Now about your hydraulics chamber-"

"JARVIS" I snapped, ignoring them all completely now.

Bruce's voice shot over me for a moment "No, Tony don't! Your already running low on oxygen, if you try to activate anything on your suite you'll just run out of energy faster."

"JARVIS" I continued, anyways "I want a visual on my surroundings with specs."

"Belay that" Bruce tried in vain, but JARVIS was programmed to respond to two people giving orders only, and one of them wasn't here.

"Of course sire" and there was a slight whirring noise as my suite began to reactivate and it only took an extra second to start scanning my area. "Tony, you got to listen to me, turn the suite back off, there almost there and then they can get you out."

"Bruce, does that submarine have cannons on it by any chance?" I tried to ask as calmly as I was capable of while my breathing went hay wire.

"Not that I'm aware of, why do you ask?" The tone in his voice made it clear that he didn't much want to hear the answer.

"Because those mechanical bug things have been recharging this whole time, and they've decided I'm going to be there first snack." I replied in sheer panic. With an almighty wrench I again attempted to free at least one of my arms, only to cry out in pain as it was wrenched painfully in the opposite direction. Panic was really starting to settle in now, as the creature started to pull me closer to it. My other arm seemed to be stuck under yet another bug machine thing that didn't seem to be back online, since it had a huge gaping hole threw the center of it. I must have done that during my first panicked haze.

I tried to do the same thing again, but the energy in the suite was far to low now, and I was starting to feel light headed. Not to mention that the darkness was starting to creep back into my vision, but I shook it off this time. I was afraid to go back, afraid that I might not wake up again if I did pass out.

The voices were back again, much louder then ever before, and I wanted to respond. I wanted desperately to tell them that, of course I was okay. I could figure a way out of this, just like I had with every other problem I'd ever faced. Staring into the glinting teeth and the sticky red tongue wrapped around my arm however, I wasn't entirely sure if that was true anymore. It was as I was looking up into what was clearly the inside of this things mouth did I accept that I was going to die.

Maybe hearing my team mates voices for eternity wasn't going to be so bad after all.

AAA

I was not in my bed. That was the first coherent thought that came to mind, though I knew I'd been drifting in and out for quite some time. Every other time I'd hear random strings of voices, and conversations that made no sense.

There was noise now. I could hear voices talking pretty loud, but they didn't seem to be in my room. Good, only Pepper was aloud in our room. Why were they being so loud right outside though? What had I done this time to piss of my team. I rolled to my side in agitation, only for something to rip very sharply off my chest, and an extremely loud one note high beep went off right next to my ear.

I tried to lurch away from the loud noise, only to be thrown into space and land on a hard, solid, and cold ground. Now there were even louder voices in here, and I still wasn't in my room. Where was Pepper? Where was Bruce or Clint or anybody that would get me out of here?

Someone ruffly grabbed my arm and tried to lift me back to not my bed, and I reacted on instinct by lashing out and punching them. I might have broke something in the process, because there was an audible squish noise as I did it. The voices continued getting louder and I tried desperately to make sense of my surroundings. There were bright lights everywhere, a very uncomfortable breeze blowing where there shouldn't be, and someone had finally pushed away the guy I just punched.

Pepper! Yes that was definitely Pepper storming in here, but wait, should she be here? I didn't know where I was or what was going on, was she in danger here to? Her warm and petite hands were suddenly on my face, her calm voice saying soothing words. I couldn't make them all out, but the tone promised peace.

I let her guide me back to the not my bed, and she settled me down in it as well as covering me up so that the air went away. Now that Pepper was sitting beside me, continuing to speak in a calming way, I again tried to take another more decent look at my surroundings. I must be in the Helicarrier, hence why all the bright lights and the not my bed. Plus all of the strange people around me, they must be doctors. Was I sick?

I didn't feel sick, though I was still more out of it then I would have liked under any normal circumstances. Had I had to much alcohol? The nurse that I must have punched in the nose was being supported by his colleagues, and both were giving me dirty looks, but were being walked out by a very pissed off looking Thor and Clint. Looking about me I saw Natasha and Bruce examining the medical equipment which had finally stopped its incessant noise.

Still, I couldn't really hear any of this, and everything was all blurred around the edges. Plus my throat felt like it had spent a week swallowing sand. Deciding to deal with the worst of the problems first, I lifted my left hand up to my ear and tried snapping right next to it. I kind of heard it, but it was still muffled. Feeling even more perplexed, I started prodding around the area, only to feel a cotton ball in the way. I had just moved to take it out when Pepper's hand was there again. She was shaking her head no and saying something very slowly, but I paid her no mind, shook off her hand and pulled the little white ball out.

I gasped in both pain and shock at once, as that side of my head began throbbing to the beat of my heart.

"I warned you" Pepper whispered quietly next me, and though it was as quite as a breath, it still had me clutching my head in pain. She moved as if to insert it again, but I pushed her hand away ruffly and demanded "No, tell me what's going on. Did Bruce drug me again?" I winced in horror not only at my own voice, which sounded horribly like a chain smokers on crack, but also the sheer pain of hearing.

"Are you ever going to let that go?" My best friend demanded from my other side, and I dragged my still glazed eyes towards him while now massaging what was almost a full migraine. Right, next on the list, why was my vision so jacked up? Glancing around the room I saw a baggy of something with an IV dripping down and, following it, found that it had once been attached to my arm. I'd torn the thing out when I flipped out of bed apparently, and since no one was at least trying to put that back in, I allowed Pepper to reinsert the muffler.

Natasha was there all of a sudden, forcing a cup of ice into my hands. I scowled at her, wanting some real water (hadn't I been promised gallons of it?), but decided my throat hurt to much to deny any refreshment. I popped an ice cube in my mouth and sucked on it greedily as Bruce came forward, removed the needle from my arm, and started swabbing away the trickle of blood with yet another cotton ball.

I continued to suckle on my ice cube's and just stare into space as memory very slowly started coming back. First fighting those robotic bugs, then the the dive bomb of my life into an ocean, I think I hallucinated for a while...not much else though. It didn't really explain why I was in a hospital bed, and had clearly been here for a while, or why everyone was treating me like an invalid.

It was only when Pepper's warm hand started to caress mine did I look back at her. She was saying something to me, but it was still so muted I couldn't really make it out. I furrowed my brow to let her know that, and she repeated her question slowly and very clearly so that I could make out the words "Are you okay?"

I couldn't help but crack a grin at that, clearly I was absolutely fine. When Pepper looked up as I assumed someone spoke to her, I did as well and was taken aback by not only Thor and Clint having returned, but Steve and Fury had come in as well without my noticing.

Then again, I was so out of it World War III could have started and I might not have noticed. Judging by the looks on all of there faces, it just might have. Pepper suddenly grabbed my face, and pulled it back to hers as she said something. I didn't quite catch it, but she leaned down to swiftly kiss me before standing up and making as if to leave. I reached out and grabbed her fingers just as they were almost out of reach, and she turned back to me with a very sad smile on her face.

She leaned back down, kissed me gently but passionately, and just as my grip started to loosen, she straitened up, steeped out of my reach, and said something to someone behind me. When she exited the room behind the rest of my team mates, I moved automatically as if to follow her, when suddenly Bruce was in her place. Putting a firm hand on my shoulder and saying something well beyond me.

Now growing tired of this, I moved my hand to take back out the cotton, and completely ignored Bruce shaking his head and trying to stop me. The moment it was out, he stopped talking at once, and I just sat there for a moment trying to adjust again. I had only taken out the same one as before, but even in the sudden quite a headache was beginning to build up again.

At least this time it was much more bearable. Only when I was sure the white wool would not be reinserted did I turn my attention to Bruce and demand "What's going on."

I think I managed to hide the wince on my face this time, at least he pretended not to notice it as he answered in a very soft whisper "Its nothing that needs to concern you right now Tony."

I scowled at him very heavily, and he sighed and collapsed into the nearest chair, making the metal squeal terribly and forcing my hands to cover my ears as nail splitting pain returned. Blinking the sudden tears away, I looked back up to see a very apologetic look upon his face.

"Sorry" he mouthed, but I continued to stare at him, demanding my answers. He sighed, and then took his glasses off to begin fidgeting with them. Bruce was not stupid, nor would he pretend to be so, especially in my presence. So he knew that I would keep this up until I got my answers.

When none continued to be forthcoming, I demanded "Where's my phone."

He frowned at me before standing back up and going over to the side of the bed and scooping it up before walking back over, and sitting back in the chair much more gently this time.

"Would you even understand it if you did hack into your medical files?" He questioned as my fingers went right to work on getting the information I needed.

In no time at all I had the video feed from the Iron Man suite, downloaded from JARVIS, and was watching the sequence of events that my mind had not been able to keep. It was all from my visors point of view, which actually made it all worse.

There were teeth everywhere, I was screaming so loud that I was forced to mute my own phone to keep from keeling over in pain again. Continuing to watch anyways, I saw right away when all of the metal parts disappeared in a flash of blue light, and I was once again surrounded on all sides by blackness. Then there was a horrid bright light, and strange people all around me. I tried to fight them, but they somehow knew where the release valve on my suite was. Either that or the thing was so destroyed that they actually managed to pry it off. I'd rather go with the second.

The people continued to say all sorts of things, but I couldn't lip read that fast. I turned the volume up by one notch, and dropped the phone at once to claw at my ear. Hoping to tear it off as they suddenly started screaming

"-pulse is weakening get an oxygen mask in here-"

"-reactor is still straining the heart, get the rest of this thing off of him-"

"-set rise level to maximum."

"You can't do that, the sudden pressure change could kill him!"

"Do you want to be the one to tell the rest of the Avengers that we let him die because he might get an ear ache later! Rise the levels."

"His ears are already starting to bleed, your going to-"

"Where's that oxygen mask!"

Suddenly, it was all gone. My phone was no longer in my lap, and the silence had returned. I sat there for a long time, just breathing. Trying to force the horrid memories away.

When I was sure my head wasn't being cleaved off, I glanced up and saw that Bruce was pale as a sheet, and concentrating very hard on my phone in his hand, trying I guessed to keep the green from his person.

The hum of electricity was the only noise present for so long, I thought Bruce was done talking to me. I settled down comfortably in my bed, preparing to nod off and think about this some other time when there was no company present.

It explained what had happened to me, but not where the rest of the Avengers had gone, with Pepper in tow.

I hadn't realized I'd spoken aloud until Bruce spoke up "how about we play a game" he asked from beside me, and I looked up quickly to see that he was back to staring at me, "I'll answer your questions, if you answer mine. Honestly." I turned away to mull this over, having a feeling as to what he was going to ask, and weighing it against the need to know myself. Also, secretly pleased that the sound of his voice had gone from a freight train smashing into me to a bouncy ball smacking the side of my head.

Finally, I turned back to face him and nodded my assent. He smiled in relief before opening his mouth, but I cut him off quickly "You first."

He huffed and looked back towards the door, then back at me before nodding. I popped another ice cube in my mouth as he murmured "Justin Hammer has released a new line of armor. We are trying to find out weather its going to bug out and kill everyone again."

I nodded my head, okay that made sense, and he had a point in saying I didn't really care right at this second. That was a problem I could easily fix if it did get out of hand, but one that would draw the others attention. It also explained why Pepper was needed, she'd have to publicly view it on my behalf, as the face of THE Tech corporation. It also explained why the other Avengers were needed, but Bruce wasn't, as no one wanted the Hulk to make an appearance at such a public event.

I'd almost forgotten my end of the deal until Bruce questioned "Why didn't you tell us you were claustrophobic?"

My eyes snapped to his and away so quickly that the room started to spin a little, but I was secretly glad of this. It gave me another few seconds to put the world right and come up with some sort of lame ass response. One that did not involve the horrid confession of a fear of confinement, how it always reminded me forcibly of dark cave walls, and sometimes even lead to buckets of dirty water just waiting to smother the air from my own lungs. Not the truth though, anything but to admit that horrid weakness.

"Steve hates the cold" came a whisper so soft that I wasn't all together sure I'd heard it right. Seeming to sense my confusion, he repeated himself, and though I understood him, it still made no sense. He continued on "Natasha can't stand to be around fire, Clint avoids dark places, Thor hates reptiles with a passion I've never seen matched." He paused for a moment before meeting my eyes and continued just a might bit louder "I'm still afraid that I will be the death of someone close to me."

When I again didn't respond, he kept going "What I'm trying to say is, were all afraid of something. They'll all deny what I just said, but you know its true Tony."

He settled back in his chair and continued to fidget with his glasses, and still I could think of nothing to say. This, in fact, had me chuckling a bit.

"What's so funny?" he demanded, frowning up at me.

I continued to grin as I explained "after everything anybody's tried to get me to shut up, the dangling from the ceiling, the free falling from the roof, smothering, drugging. You finally got me speechless."

"Was that all it took?" Bruce asked with a wry grin coming across his face.

"I guess so" I whispered to my lap.

"Well at any rate, I'm glad your back" Bruce told me sincerely "the silence has been driving us all crazy."

* * *

This was originally going to just be a one shot (hence its like five times the length of the rest of them), but then I decided I'd like to elaborate on some of the things said in the last scene, and it turned into this six shot. Thank you thank you one last time, for your continued support of this and I hope you continue enjoying what ever else I might spit out in the future.


End file.
